Effects of ultradrying storage on vigor of Amaranthus hypochondriacus seeds

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of ultra drying on vigor of Amaranthus hypochondriacus seeds. The seeds of A.hypochondriacus were ultra dried at different time to get seeds with 8.09%, 4.12% and 2.03% of moisture content, respectively. These seeds were stored in calorstat at 50 ℃ temperature for 10 days to age. The germination rate and other physiological parameters of aged seeds and noaged seeds of A.hypochondriacus were measured in this study. The results of this study showed that there were not significant differences in physiological parameters between seeds with ultradrying and seed without ultradrying. However, Seed germination rate, the activity of dehydrogenase and peroxidase peroxidase of aged seeds were higher than that of the control seeds and the electric conductivity and the content of MDA of aged seeds were lower than that of the control seeds when seed moisture was content 4.12%. The storage effectiveness of seeds with 4.12% moisture content was better than that of seeds with 2.03% moisture content. This suggested that the ultra drying could maintain seed vigor of A.hypochondriacus seeds and enhanced their storage effectiveness when seed moisture content was appropriate.